


the sun will rise and we will try again

by the_one_that_fell



Series: the heaviness that i hold in my heart belongs to gravity [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, Platonic Cuddling, bed stealing, drunk cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7322680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_one_that_fell/pseuds/the_one_that_fell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was just setting down his book and slipping further under the covers when his bedroom door slammed open. Jack cursed and rubbed at his eyes. “Jesus, Shits, not tonight-”</p>
<p>“Zimmermann!” Surprisingly, it was the new team manager, Larissa - <i>Lardo</i>,  he reminded himself - standing in the doorway, hands on her hips. “Why’re you in <i>bed</i>? Weak.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	the sun will rise and we will try again

**Author's Note:**

> A missing moment from my fic [ _and not waving but drowning_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6615430). Can be read alone.

Jack didn't do parties. By this point in his sophomore year, everyone on the team knew that. Even Holster and Ransom - two very outgoing and fun-loving frogs who’d sort of adopted Jack and Shitty as their mentors - had _finally_ stopped bugging Jack about doing kegsters or playing pong with them.

A post-game party was currently raging downstairs and Jack really just wanted some sleep. He was, as Shitty would put it, a cranky motherfucker right now, and wondered if doing Jonesy’s laundry for three months had really been worth dibs to live in this rundown den of sin and _incredibly loud music at three in the morning_.

He couldn’t begrudge the team too much, though. They’d pulled off a spectacular win in OT tonight, and last he saw the two new d-men had been roped into twin kegsters to celebrate. The boys deserved a good party, but Jack thought that maybe he also deserved a little bit of fucking sleep.

He was just setting down his book and slipping further under the covers when his bedroom door slammed open. Jack cursed and rubbed at his eyes. “Jesus, Shits, not tonight-”

“Zimmermann!” Surprisingly, it was the new team manager, Larissa - _Lardo,_ he reminded himself - standing in the doorway, hands on her hips. “Why’re you in _bed_? Weak.”

When he just grunted in response and turned over, she strode across the room and crawled on top of him, perching on his shoulder like a little bird. Jack could feel Lardo wobbling, though, and knew she was in danger of falling onto his face. (Not that it would _hurt_ \- Lardo was probably 90 pounds soaking wet.)

“Lardo,” he grunted. “Please let me sleep.”

He shifted to push her off, but the movement caused her to tumble onto his face instead. Cackling, she rolled over to curl up next to his head, shoving him over and commandeering most of his pillow. “Bro, why are you in bed? You scored, like, a bajillion points tonight.”

Jack sighed. “ _Three_. And I don’t do parties. You know this.”

Lardo sighed dramatically and stretched out her legs next to Jack’s. He bit back a smile and a chirp as he realized her feet barely reached his knees. She was, without a doubt, the _tiniest_ frog he’d ever met.

“Jack,” she said, trying and failing to sound serious. “Jack Zimmermann. You deserve to get drunk and celebrate your bajillion points.”

“Three,” Jack corrected again. “And I think after a game like that I _deserve_ to sleep.”

“Psh-shaw.” Lardo waved her hand at him in what he thought was _supposed_ to be a dismissive gesture. Instead, she lightly smacked him in the face and giggled. “You shouldn’t be alone after a fucking ‘swawesome game like that, bro.”

Jack sighed and shifted so he was sitting up against his headboard. “It’s normal to be alone when you’re _sleeping_ ,” he said, annoyance creeping into his tone. Lardo either didn’t notice or chose to ignore it, snuggling deeper into Jack’s pillow.

“I like you, Zimmermann,” she said in her most impressive Manager Voice, though some of the effect was lost by the slur of her words. “You’re not a massive jaghole. You’re probably my favorite, other than Shitty.”

“Um, thanks?” Jack glanced at the clock on his bedside table. _3:31 AM_ glared at him in an angry, red light. Exhaustion had settled into his bones hours ago, but he couldn’t bring himself to be wholly pissed at Lardo.

“And like-” Lardo held her hands up in the air, like she was physically grasping for words. “You fucking do what I say! Like, because you know I’m _right_ and you don't think I’m just some dumb frog who can’t even ice skate and can't be in charge of a hockey team.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “You can’t ice skate?”

Lardo glared at him. “We can’t all be professional athletes.” Then her face softened and she continued her rambling. “You’re a cool dude, Zimmer-m-mermann. Heh. Your name has ‘merman’ in it.” She scooted closer and yawned. “You shoulda been a swimmer. Swimmermann.” Her face lit up and she grabbed the front of his shirt. “Jack, you need to rethink _all_ of your life plans.”

Jack laughed and awkwardly patted her on the head. “I’m a pretty weak swimmer, if I’m being completely honest. Probably too late to go pro.”

Lardo rolled her eyes and threw an arm over Jack’s chest, snuggling in against his side. “Puh-lease. You’re Jack Zimmermann. You can do whatever the fuck you put your mind to.”

Jack was struck silent by this moment. He and Lardo weren’t close - he hadn’t even thought they were really friends - but here she was, drunkenly cuddling him and telling him how great he was. He would almost think this was her way of hitting on him if he hadn’t seen her flirting in action before.

(At a student athletes mixer a week after Lardo had been hired, he’d watched alongside a shocked and awed Shitty as their new manager scored the phone numbers of _three_ different girls. She’d winked at them once she’d caught them staring and flashed a crude gesture in their direction that had Shitty laughing and Jack blushing.)

“Thanks, Lardo,” he said quietly, hand lingering just over the small of her back.

“Mhmm.” With another yawn, she buried her face against his chest and mumbled, “Oh, and you totally have the best ass on the team. But don’t tell Shitty. His ego is very fragile.”

Jack bit back another laugh. “Mum’s the word,” he said very solemnly.

They both fell silent for a moment, and Jack was a little afraid Lardo had fallen asleep on him. He started when she spoke again, voice softer and smaller than before.

“Jack?” She asked, sounding - for the first time since he’d met her - all of her eighteen years of age. Jack tended to forget Lardo was just a kid, as quiet and pragmatic as she was.

“Mhmm?” He hummed, glancing down at her.

“How do you deal with everything?” She asked, the edges of her mouth quirking downwards. “Like, school and hockey and, like, dealing with your family-? I mean, I don’t know…” Lardo trailed off, face scrunched up in a frown. Jack found himself playing with the tips of her long, dark hair, wrapping a small strand around his finger. “It’s all so overwhelming sometimes,” she finally whispered. “I don’t wanna disappoint anyone.”

Jack almost smiled. His hand finally settled at the small of her back, and he could feel some of the tension in her shoulders dissipate. “If you’ve heard _any_ of the rumors about me,” he said, tugging gently at her hair. “Then you know I don’t have the best track record in ‘dealing.’”

“I think you’re doing okay,” she said, pouting a little. “I mean...you had a lot to deal with back then. But you’re doing okay now, aren’t you?”

Jack shrugged. He wasn’t in rehab anymore and he hadn’t had another breakdown. Yet. Things could be worse. “I guess.”

“So how do you do it?” Lardo asked. “I’m so afraid of letting my parents down, letting the team down...but it’s all so much sometimes.”

“I know we’re a handful,” Jack said with a small laugh. “But you’re doing a great job, Lardo. We really couldn’t have asked for a better manager. You won’t let us down.”

She gave him a weak smile, but poked him in the chest a little harder than necessary. “You’re not answering my question, Merman Jack.”

“One day at a time,” he said, smiling when she raised an eyebrow. “That’s what my mother always tells me. Just take everything one day at a time. Stay organized, keep a schedule...routines are good. They’re great, really. Take apart tasks that seem too big and work at them piece-by-piece. Um.” He wracked his brain, struggling to remember everything he’d ever discussed with his therapist before starting college. “Talk to someone. If things gets bad.”

“Like the counseling center?” Lardo asked, voice young and small again.

“Yeah, they’re good for that,” he said softly. “Or, you know. Me. You could talk to me.”

Lardo grinned up at him. “Thanks, Swimmermann.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “You ready to go back to the party?” He asked, rubbing a couple circles into her back. She shook her head, eyes glassy with fatigue and alcohol.

“Nah,” she said. “M’comfortable.”

After a moment, when Lardo’s breathing had slowed and evened out, Jack slipped from his bed and tucked the covers around her. He grabbed a glass of water from the bathroom and set it next to his alarm clock - which he promptly turned off - and pulled the sleeping bag from his closet. The floor of his bedroom was far from the worst place he’d ever slept before.

Just as he settled by the foot of his bed, he heard Lardo whisper, “...Jack?”  

“Yeah?” He asked around a yawn. It was a struggle to keep his eyes open, the clock reminding him that it was almost 4.

“Me, too,” she said, voice thick and slow. “You can always talk to me, too.”

Jack smiled to himself, warmth creeping into his chest. “Thanks, Lardo.”

But she was asleep, quiet snores drifting down from the bed. Jack chuckled a little, but there was something calming about the sound of another person asleep in the same room.

And the fact that Lardo trusted him like this, could open up and be vulnerable with him, considered him a _friend_ \- Jack smiled to himself at the thought. Despite the reverberations of the dance music in the floor against Jack’s head, he fell asleep almost instantly, overcome with a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at [eve-baird](http://www.eve-baird.tumblr.com)


End file.
